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2020 Supreme(Gau) 816
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GAUHATI
PRASANTA KUMAR DEKA, J.
Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd. - Petitioner
Versus
Oil India Ltd. - Respondent
WP(C) No. 9193 of 2019
Decided on : 27-08-2020
Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellant : Dr. Ashok Saraf and Mr. A. Goyal
For the Respondent: Mr. S.N. Sarma and Mr. A. Kalita
The main legal point established in the judgment is that the bid documents were not outside the control of the originator and that directing the respondent-OIL to retrieve the bid document of the petitioner and consider the same in the tender process along with other bidders would hit the sanctity of the entire bidding process.
Headnote:
E-procurement - Bid Submission - Clause 12.3, 12.4, 12.5, 12.6, 14.3, 14.4, 14.5 - The court dismissed the writ petition challenging the non-consideration of the petitioner's bid due to failure of the respondent's system to change the status of the bid from 'saved mode' to 'submitted mode'. The court held that the bid documents were not outside the control of the originator as the bid documents were still compliant for any changes to be brought by its originator. The court also considered the opinion of IIT (G) and held that directing the respondent-OIL to retrieve the bid document of the petitioner and consider the same in the tender process along with other bidders would hit the sanctity of the entire bidding process.
Fact of the Case:
The petitioner, an offshore oil and gas industry solutions provider, challenged the non-consideration of its bid by the respondent-OIL due to the failure of the respondent's system to change the status of the bid from 'saved mode' to 'submitted mode'. The petitioner claimed that it had digitally signed, saved, and submitted the bid before the submission deadline, but the system failed to acknowledge the submission.
Finding of the Court:
The court dismissed the writ petition, holding that the bid documents were not outside the control of the originator and that directing the respondent-OIL to retrieve the bid document of the petitioner and consider the same in the tender process along with other bidders would hit the sanctity of the entire bidding process.
Issues: The main issue was whether the failure of the respondent's system to change the status of the bid from 'saved mode' to 'submitted mode' warranted the court's interference to direct the respondent-OIL to consider the petitioner's bid in the tender process.
Ratio Decidendi: The court held that the bid documents were still compliant for any changes to be brought by its originator and that directing the respondent-OIL to retrieve the bid document of the petitioner and consider the same in the tender process along with other bidders would hit the sanctity of the entire bidding process.
Final Decision: The court dismissed the writ petition and vacated the interim order, thereby upholding the non-consideration of the petitioner's bid by the respondent-OIL.
JUDGMENT :
1. Heard Dr. A. Saraf, learned senior counsel assisted by Mr. A. Goyal, learned counsel for the petitioner. Also heard Mr. S.N. Sarma, learned senior counsel assisted by Mr. A Kalita, learned counsel for the … Respondents.
2. The petitioner-company involved in providing complete solutions for the offshore oil and gas industry combining customized engineering, procurement, fast-track project management and state of art fabrication capabilities meeting the stringent timelines, conforming to international safety standards. The respondent-Oil India Ltd. (‘OIL’) came out with an invitation to bid under the International Competitive Bidding (‘ICB’) under Single Stage 2-Bid system format through IFB No. CPG2023P20 for Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Testing and Commissioning of a Modular Field Gas Gathering Station (‘FGGS’) at Baghjan, Assam (‘the project’). The bidding process in two bids system consists of the Techno Commercial Bid which was to be submitted. The technical bid was supposed to be opened on the day of the bid submission and commercial bid was supposed to be opened after the technical evaluation. The submissions of the bids were to be made on “Oil E Procurement site (both un-priced techno-commercial and priced bid by bidders)”.
3. The respondent-OIL extended the time for submission of the bid six times. The original date for submission of bid was 29.8.2019, which was extended to 12.9.2019, 16.10.2019, 30.10.2019, 7.11.2019 and finally vide corrigendum No. 11 extended to 14.11.2019. The schedule date and time for submission of the bids was 14.11.2019 upto 11 : 00 : 00 hrs.
4. The petitioner prepared its bid and commenced uploading of the technical bid documents on 23.9.2019 at 07:42:02 hrs. and continued uploading of the technical bid documents on 23.10.2019,13.11.2019 and till 06 : 20 : 51 hrs. of 14.11.2019. Thereafter the petitioner uploaded the Price Bid on 14.11.2019 before 10:30:00 hrs. as stated in the petition. It is stated that after successful uploading of Technical and Price Bids, the petitioner started submitting the bid from 10:30:00 hrs. on 14.11.2019 by pressing the ‘submit’ button but noticed that the ‘submit’ button was not responding and as such the petitioner tried many times by pressing ‘submit’ button till 10:49:56 hrs. Re-logging the web page did not yield any result as the icon button of ‘SUBMIT on the web portal remained non-responding and inactive till closure of the schedule time on 14.11.2019.
The said NIT stipulates the following clauses which are extracted herein below the same being relevant in deciding the issues.
12. Submission of bids:
12.3 The tender is processed under Single Stage - Two-Bid system. Bidder shall submit the technical bid and priced bid along with all the annexures and pro forma (wherever applicable) and copies of documents in electronic form through OIL's e-procurement portal within the Bid Closing Date and Time stipulated in the e-tender. For submission of Bids online at OIL's E-Tender Portal, detailed instructions are available in “User Manual” available in OIL's E-Tender Portal. Guidelines for bid submission are also provided in the “Forwarding Letter’. The technical Bid is to be submitted as per Terms of Reference/Technical specifications of the bid document and priced bid as per the price schedule. The technical bid should be uploaded in the “Technical RFx” Tab Page only. Prices to be quoted as per Proforma-B should be uploaded as Attachment just below the “Tendering Text” in the attachment link under “Notes & Attachments” Tab under General Data in the e-portal. No price should be given in the “Technical RFx”, otherwise bid shall be rejected. The priced bid should not be submitted in physical form and which shall not be considered.
However, the following documents in one set should necessarily be submitted in physical form in sealed envelope superscri
